Apple Upgrades Mac Pro With Up To 12 CPU Cores, New SSD Option
The new 2010 iMac may be the most consumer-centric piece of Apple's July
2010 hardware refresh, but for power users it's the Mac Pro that'll get
the attention. Apple's heavyweight has been refreshed this morning, but
as with the iMac, no real major exterior changes are happening.
Instead, it's all in the inside. Intel has produced quite a few major
chips since the Mac Pro line was last refreshed, and now the machine is
finally seeing some of that work integrated into its build-to-order
sheet.
The new Mac Pro line holds up to 12 processing core and is up to 50% more powerful than the previous generation, with the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives. That last one is also huge; this is the first Mac Pro where Apple has allowed users to order SSDs. In past generations, they have essentially said that SSDs didn't really have a place in the desktop, but now the itch for speed has finally let these little guys move into the big house.
At the heart of the new Mac Pro’s performance are next generation quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 3.33 GHz. These multi-core processors use a single die design so each core can share up to 12MB L3 cache to improve efficiency while increasing processing speed. These systems feature an integrated memory controller for faster memory bandwidth and reduced memory latency; Turbo Boost to dynamically boost processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz; and Hyper-Threading to create up to 24 virtual cores. The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory and customers can configure-to-order the even faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.
Also, the GPU on this new machine has not one, but two Mini DisplayPort sockets along with a single dual-link DVI output. A native three-monitor setup seems not out of the question, now. The new Mac Pro starts at $2499 and includes a single 2.8GHz quad-core Xeon W3530 processor, 3GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, 1TB hard drive, 18x SuperDrive, four PCIe 2.0 slots and plenty of ports. The other base configurations are listed below, with the 12-core monster starting at nearly $5000.
The new Mac Pro line holds up to 12 processing core and is up to 50% more powerful than the previous generation, with the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives. That last one is also huge; this is the first Mac Pro where Apple has allowed users to order SSDs. In past generations, they have essentially said that SSDs didn't really have a place in the desktop, but now the itch for speed has finally let these little guys move into the big house.
At the heart of the new Mac Pro’s performance are next generation quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 3.33 GHz. These multi-core processors use a single die design so each core can share up to 12MB L3 cache to improve efficiency while increasing processing speed. These systems feature an integrated memory controller for faster memory bandwidth and reduced memory latency; Turbo Boost to dynamically boost processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz; and Hyper-Threading to create up to 24 virtual cores. The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory and customers can configure-to-order the even faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.
Also, the GPU on this new machine has not one, but two Mini DisplayPort sockets along with a single dual-link DVI output. A native three-monitor setup seems not out of the question, now. The new Mac Pro starts at $2499 and includes a single 2.8GHz quad-core Xeon W3530 processor, 3GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, 1TB hard drive, 18x SuperDrive, four PCIe 2.0 slots and plenty of ports. The other base configurations are listed below, with the 12-core monster starting at nearly $5000.
Pricing & Availability
The new Mac Pro will be available in August through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:
- one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of fully-shared L3 cache;
- 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB;
- ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
- two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
- 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
- 18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
- four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
- five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
- AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;
- Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
- Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.
The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $3,499 (US), includes:
- two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
- 6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
- ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
- two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
- 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
- 18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
- four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
- five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
- AirPort Extreme 802.11n;
- Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
- Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.
Configure-to-order options include:
- one 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3565 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
- one 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon W3680 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
- two 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5650 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
- two 2.93 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
- two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
- one ATI Radeon HD 5870 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
- up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the quad-core Mac Pro;
- up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the 8-core Mac Pro;
- up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD); or
- up to four 1TB or 2TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm;
- Mac Pro RAID card;
- dual-channel or quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card; and
- up to two 18x SuperDrives with double-layer support.
Accessories include: Magic Trackpad, Apple Battery Charger, wired Apple Mouse, wireless Apple Keyboard, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, the AppleCare® Protection Plan; and pre-installed copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server; iWork®, Logic Express 9, Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 3. Complete options and accessories are available at www.apple.com/macpro.
